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Darkness
Unique Ability Hellborn (Ongoing): '''Your units may exit Hell without permission. When doing so, they may emerge in any area on the surface map. They enter Hell in the usual way. Hellborn may not be used until after the first Council Phase (starting with the second Action Phase). Unique Weakness '''Nocturnal (Ongoing): You cannot build or conquer buildings in the Sky Dome, the Moon, or on the Spike. You may still destroy buildings in those areas. Setup 4 Trolls in Outer Hell. Start with 6 Power. Figures Shrine (6) Building Cost: 1 Combat: 0 Temple (3) Building Cost: 2 + Shrine Combat: +1 Rout Dark Walk (Ongoing): Your units may enter hell from any area in which you have a Temple. Ziggurat (1) Building Cost: 3 + Temple Combat: +1 Kill Dark Walk (Ongoing): Your units may enter hell from the area in which your Ziggurat is located. Castle of Lead (1) Building Cost: 3 + any building (requires Ancestor Worship gift) Combat: +1 Kill Darksee (Power Phase & Ongoing): Gain 1 rune during the Power Phase. Your units may enter hell from the area in which the Castle of Lead is located. Troll (4) Mortal Minion Cost: 1 Combat: 1 The Mistress (1) Mortal Hero Cost: 2 Combat: 1 Shades (3) Lesser God Cost: 2 Combat: 1 Hellmother, Kyger Litor (1) Greater God Cost: 4 (You must have a Temple, Ziggurat, or Castle of Lead in play.) Combat: 8, minus the number of Darkness empire units in your pool. Nocturnal Raids (Power Phase): Place all Trolls from your pool into any Hell aea. Heroquests First Fragment * Have a minion, hero, lesser god, and greater god in play. * Summon Hellmother, Kyger Litor. Second Fragment * Part A: The first time you kill a unit or destroy a building from each empire in battle, take 1 such unit or building and place it here. See Part B. * Lose a unit in battle. Third Fragment * Part B: Once Part A contains a unit or building from each other empire, return those items to their owners' pools and take 2 gifts. Receive power equal to the number of enemy players. * Place your ziggurat. Gifts * Black Market (Council Phase): Draw 1 rune from the deck. You may read it aloud if you like. You may choose to keep this rune, paying 2 Power or 1 VP, OR you may give it to another player, who decides whether you earn 2 Power or 1 VP. * Ancestor Worship (Ongoing): You may now build the Castle of Lead. You earn 1 rune each time you build it. (Remember to gain 1 rune during each power phase if the Castle of Lead is in play.) * Spectral Form (Post-Battle): You may assign up to 2 kills and/or routs to each of your shades involved in the battle. If a shade receives at least 1 kill, it is killed. If a shade suffers any routs (and no kills), it is routed. * Psychopomp (Ongoing): Whenever one or more enemy units enter Hell from outside it, regardless of method, you earn 1 VP or 1 Power, chosen by that enemy. If units from more than one enemy empire enter Hell at the same time (e.g. via Storm's Teleport), you get to choose whether to earn 1 VP or 1 Power. * Fear (Post-Battle): When you rout enemy units, you may send them (as a group) to any area you choose, anywhere on the map. * Hunger (Battle): Instead of rolling her die in combat, the Mistress may instead contribute your choice of +1 Kill or +2 Routs to your rolled battle results. Power Phase Abilities & Gifts # Nocturnal Raids (Hellmother Ability) # Darksee (Earn 1 Rune if Castle of Lead is in play) Council Phase Abilities & Gifts # Black Market (Gift) General Tips Darkness is an advanced faction that is challenging to play. They do not have a reliable gift for power generation. They have 4 building types and thus a high possible power generation but in the early game, they are starved for power. The minimum power costs to get all 6 gifts is around 24-30 power (10 for a shrine/temple/ziggurat, 8 for summoning a mistress, a shade, and the Hellmother, and 2-4 more for moving/battling each enemy player). Starting turns between 5 and 9 power is common so the early game power is very tight. Darkness is not a passive faction to play and defensive players may find this faction to be outside their comfort zone. Two of their gift fragments require attacking each enemy faction in the game and claiming one of their units/buildings as a trophy. This can result in a two or more front war and can make it very hard for this faction to win. Other than the Hellmother, each unit only has a combat of 1. This means the faction does not win through brute force. It uses the Hellborn ability to position a force in hell and strike from the shadows at weak targets. It needs to use its units/gifts like a scalpel to accomplish its goals of collecting trophies, defending, or attacking buildings. Combos & Strategies * Strategies ** The first two gifts you need to focus on is getting your Ziggurat and getting a troll killed in battle and these ideally should be acquired by turn 2 so you can benefit from the power gain of those fragments early on. ** Black Market should be your first book with the intent of giving those runes away to other players for +2 power. Try to negotiate power but don't get mad if they give VPs instead. Darkness tends to lag behind on VPs and this helps keep you in the running. ** Summoning Hellmother is a requirement for both the gifts of the First Fragment so she should be your 3rd gift. Her Noctural Raids ability is essential for getting the trophies from each player as trolls killed are returned for free and already positioned in Hell to use Hellborn. ** The Castle of Lead is a great building and it's power and Rune generation are very beneficial and normally cannot be conquered (only destroyed). However, this building is optional. Taking Ancestor Worship early means you will be trading Hunger or Fear/Psychopomp out for later. ** Hell is a staging point for your attacks on the surface rather than a base of operations. It seems intuitive to build all the areas of Hell with your buildings but you will at some point rout units there with Fear/Psychopomp and any base you've built there will need to be defended from them. ** When you have a choice of taking a unit or a building as a trophy you should opt for the unit and instead conquer the building. It may seem like a strong move to deny your opponent access to their Ziggurat or a Temple until you complete the collection, but the power savings from conquering the building is much more valuable. ** When attacking the surface consider the costs to get your attacking force back to hell. Darksee is an essential ability and conquering a temple or Ziggurat will get you back to Hell with a single move. * Combos ** The Mistress with the Hunger Gift is an amazing unit in both offense and defense. She can add +1 kill when you need to ensure you acquire a trophy or kill a high-value target. The +2 rout option for Hunger is also amazing. In defense of a Temple, Ziggurat, or Castle of Lead the mistress alone will require a minimum of 4 attacking units to capture/destroy the building. You can also tune your attacks better by routing additional defenders to ensure you can capture a building. ** Fear and Psychopomp together turn your routs into a power or VP generating engine and also trap enemies in Hell. This combos with The Mistress and Hunger as well. Opening Moves Opening moves with Darkness is really planning for turn 2. Your opening should be focused on your Hero Quests and for maximizing your power generation for future turns. As such you need to build buildings but what you build depends on how you want to use your Trolls turn 2. You should launch an attack in turn 2 to start collecting trophies and to get a troll killed for the Hero Quest. There are a few schools of thoughts on how you go about this though: # Turn 1 Ziggurat: Spending turn 1 building a Ziggurat will complete a Hero Quest and let you take Black Market. This will net you only 4 power going into turn 2 but you may be able to use the Minimum Power Rule to get to 5p if another faction got to 9p. You can then negotiate the Black Market rune for +2p. This is not a bad position for turn 2. You can build it anywhere but in Hell sets up a defensible staging area in Hell for future attacks. From here you can: ## Conquer a temple and build shrines and/or castle of lead to help power gain going forward. ## Destroy an enemy Ziggurat and take it as a trophy to deny them access to the building. ## Summon Hellmother for the Hero Quest to replenish lost trolls. ## Continue attacking with surviving trolls or move them back to hell to prep for a later attack. # Turn 1 Shrine + Temple + Unit: If your opponents are building Ziggurat's turn 1 (which is a mistake) you should plan to Conquer one on turn 2. I'd put the temple in Hell and the shrine in a western area that is adjacent to Hell. You will go into turn two with 5 power (1p for Blessing, 4p for two building types). You summon a 2p unit to assist in your attack of a Ziggurat and progress towards another Hero Quest. The objective is to kill a unit and take it as a trophy, get a troll killed for the Hero Quest, and Conquer the Ziggurat for another Hero Quest. From here you have 3p and can: ## Upgrade your Shrine to a Castle of Lead (if you took Ancestor Worship). ## Build another temple + shrine. ## Summon defenders. # Build Temple + shrines: A safe bet is to just build buildings turn 1. You can build a Temple in Hell and place 3 more shrines on the map. You will move into turn 2 with 5p (as described above) and be more flexible in your attack turn 2. Turn 2 if you don't opt to conquer a Ziggurat you should build one and ideally replace the temple you upgraded with a conquered one.